Most people recognise Las Vegas as a blur of dollar signs, shotgun weddings, 3000-room hotels and extravagant fountains. Even when pressed to imagine life that exists outside of the casinos, it’s easy to resort to naming movie-inspired tropes – strip clubs, taxi drivers, off-duty hotel workers and croupiers. Photographer Matt Joy, though, travelled even further to the edges of the Las Vegas population, capturing a day in the life of 22-year-old resident Gerardo. As Matt stresses in the quote below, “People live here. Young people live here.”
Through a series of images titled Life Beyond The Strip the artist describes a life removed from the perceived glamour of Las Vegas, even if the neon lights do creep into his frames. Read his description of the project below and follow him on Instagram right here.
“I recently got back from a road trip around the US. Whilst in Las Vegas, I shot a little project documenting “Life beyond the strip”. I basically set out to try and create a story that shows there’s more to Vegas than just the adult theme park we know it as. People live here. Young people live here. And it must be a surreal place to grow up when it relies so heavily on tourism. Gerardo was 22, had just got out of jail and was still just trying to figure what life had in store for him. I met him in a skate park on the edge of Vegas and his passion for the sport was palpable. I decided to spend the day with him and these photos are the result of that.” – Matt Joy
